Ancient Ayurveda Woodash Soaps

The man of the house has been demanding bath soap for a couple of days now (as I use herb powder from Krya currently, I don’t keep a tab of the soap stock). I had come across the Ancient Ayurveda brand in Amazon once and decided to give the soaps from this brand, a try.

What the brand calims:

Organic Soaps & Herbal Soaps Are Usually Filled With Colorants Which Are Created With Various Toxic Based Sub Ingredients That Is Hidden In There Description.Our Soaps On The Other Hand, Is Absolutely Free From All Synthetic Coloring Agents And Micas. Our In House Distilled Absolutes Ranges From Volatile Floral Oils All The Way Up To Steam Distilled Herbal Undiluted Extracts.

Impressive facts:
Unlike all the soap brands that prints only the ingredients used in making the soap (that too not always the complete list), they have printed a paragraph of chemical and harmful ingredients that they have not used in making these soaps.

Ancient Ayurveda Oleoresin Soap are absolutely Child Labour Free. These are not tested on animals and is handcrafted, hand-wrapped and hand-packed with 100% recycled paper.

I don’t think it gets anymore ethical this this.

Eventhough there are many combos available, I bought a set of these four soaps : Saffron Goatsmilk , Ashwagandha , Sheabutter Vco & Gotukola Woodash Soap and also the Indian red sandal soap separately.

Price: Since there was an introductory offer when I purchased this, I got them for a total of 525Rs for the combo and Rs281 for the sandalwood soap.

My Review:

The brand is so natural that, they use soy ink and recycled paper for packaging. The products are vegan and pure and is rich in ayurvedic oils (tailas) and herbs.
They have a herbal smell which is very mild and not overpowering at all. The red sandalwood soap has a beige color and is a perfect sphere, unlike the other soaps that are rectangular/oval in shape.

The soaps appear smooth at first but once I started using one, I found that one side of the soap has a layer scrubby herb particles. So infact one side of the soap can be used as a cleanser and the other side as a body scrub, which is very convenient.

The soap doesn’t lather heavily which is expected in the absence of lathering agents like sulphates. Eventhough you keep the soap in a dry dish, you will notice that a wet layer is formed on it. This is the seeping of the ingredient oils to the surface of the soap.

The best way to utilize this is to swipe off this oil layer from the surface of the soap with your hand, and massage it directly on the skin. This will help break down the dirt, sebum and any light makeup. You can then lather the soap with water and cleanse your face again, which will help to remove all the residues from your face.

The soap doesn’t dry out the skin and is great as a winter skincare product.

Also the most impressive part is that the brand works in association with Prajwala, the largest anti-human-sex-trafficking-shelter based in India.

How to increase the longevity of the soap:

This being a completely natural and oil rich soap, the chances of it melting are high. This makes it not very travel friendly, unless you cover it with a plastic wrap. You have to refrigerate the soaps that are not currently being used. I initially kept them in my shelf which is dark and cool. Yet the soaps melted a bit and the oils seeped out of the paper wrap. Also you can cut the soap into halves and use one part at a time.

Incase you buy the red sandalwood soap, don’t expect the sandalwood fragrance from it (which was a bit disappointing). It has a very mild fragrance compared to the other soaps and the fragrance doesn’t last on your skin after bath.

All these soaps are gentle and can be used. Cleansers sit on your face for very little time. I was a bit disappointed byt the red sandalwood soap, because I have used the Kama Ayurveda red sandalwood soap and was expecting the same kind of color and fragrance. But otherwise all soaps are good. But personally I would suggest you to use a soap free cleanser for face.